Issue 15

Foreword

In this 15th Issue of Lunaris Review, the writers take readers on a journey โ€“ to share in the appendages of grief; the subtleties of love, of longing for what was & the possibilities of dreams in the realist world.

In โ€œAnatomy of Fire and Finding Solace,โ€ Hassan Usman offers us a craft-talk on warmth & peopling:

If you want to know
how to surround your home
with plenty people
without sending them
an invitation โ€” set up a fire

As if by divinity, Sandeep Kumar Mishra in his poem, โ€œBody Orchard (Older Days)โ€, introduces us to an extended list of โ€œpeopleโ€ whose company we may enjoy: โ€œFruit is for sharing, with friends, family and / neighbors even if your neighbors are bears or cows,โ€ he writes. He extends an invitation to other creatures to join in the joy (& misery) of living, a reminder that the human is only human in the expansive presence of other creations. Sandeepโ€™s poem is filled with snips of memories that transport me to my grandpaโ€™s cottage at Nsuansa where I have also shared fruits with sheep, ducks, wild birds, and cousins.

Tshepiso Mabula in โ€œUpward Mobilityโ€ offers us an intimate interrogation of grief & joy: โ€œSide by side, two cow skins hung next to one another over the high wall, one for the sad family marking the loss of a matriarch and the other marking the joyful elation of a daughter who had found a husband man enough to marry her with cows.โ€ Here, cows are not just โ€œneighborsโ€ as in Sandeepโ€™s poem but an offering to โ€œmark the occasionโ€ of a matriarchโ€™s loss.

Although this issue is un-themed, by some stroke of divine intervention, the stories run into each other in a seamless beaut. In this volume, Lunaris Review continues the work of offering a platform for new voices & yet maintaining their rich taste in literature. Like some of the writers in this issue, Lunaris Review offered me a platform when I set out on my journey to publishing โ€“ it is a story that moves from Drobo to Sunyani to Hohoe through virtual worlds to Cape Coast, where I also write from today.

To not bore you, reader, youโ€™re welcome to Lunaris Review #15!

Henneh Kyereh Kwaku,
Cape Coast, Ghana.